Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Oct 16, 2022 21 tweets 7 min read Read on X
People like the idea of solar farms in the abstract, but hundreds of communities around the world are currently fighting them because they require 300-600x more land than other energy sources, produce 300x more toxic waste, and devastate critical wildlife habitats.
Many rich nations dump used solar panels and batteries on poor African nations

nytimes.com/2019/05/12/cli…
Other rich nations send used solar panels to "landfills where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium."

latimes.com/business/story…
By 2035 there will be 3x more used solar panels than new ones, which will make them 4x more expensive.
"The economics of solar," wrote Harvard Business Review researchers, "would darken quickly as the industry sinks under the weight of its own trash."

hbr.org/2021/06/the-da…
Solar farms are killing the critically threatened desert tortoises. "A team of biologists relocated 139 tortoises from their habitat to make way for the solar panels...In a span of a few weeks, 30 tortoises were killed."

reviewjournal.com/news/science-a…
Wind turbines chop the wings off of big, endangered, slow-to-reproduce birds. "USGS scientists concluded that if anticipated growth in wind energy by 2040 occurs, increased turbine-caused deaths could cut golden eagle populations by half over 10 years."

apnews.com/article/scienc…
After wind turbines spend decades killing threatened species, their blades are sent to landfills because it's too expensive to recycle them. (That little object in the upper right of the photo is a tractor burying the blades.)

bloomberg.com/news/features/… Image
Communities around the world are fighting back against the imposition of environmentally-destructive solar and wind projects by bankers, coastal elites, and subsidy-farmers. Over 40 townships have blocked or restricted projects in Ohio alone this year.

realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/…
If you would like to fight one of these hideous, environmentally-destructive projects in your own community, you can reach out to @LinowesLisa who is organizing a worldwide movement that is successfully fighting back.

wecprotect.org
We must ban all solar panels imported from China. They are being made by incarcerated Uyghur Muslims against whom genocide is being committed. They're cheap because they're made with slave labor. The subsidy for solar is blood money.

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/ban-chinese-…
It's easy to calculate the massive impact of solar and wind projects. Just draw a circle around an energy project and divide by the amount of electricity they produce. Here are calculations from around the world.

environmentalprogress.org/power-density-…
The low energy density of sunlight and wind is why solar and wind projects require so much land and mining. It's why they can't power a high-energy civilization. And it's why the end of the renewables craze is near.

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/end-of-renew…
What about batteries? Also made by enslaved Muslims in China. For fundamental moral reasons, we must ban all solar panels and batteries made in China.

nytimes.com/2022/06/20/bus…
Rainforests are being ravaged for the toxic elements required for renewables and batteries

apnews.com/article/techno…
Q: What about the waste from other sources of energy like nuclear?

A:

Why do people even put solar panels on land when they should go on rooftops? Because rooftop solar is ~2x more expensive

But I agree we should:

1. Ban large-scale solar
2. Ban Chinese solar genocide panels
3. Require solar developers to pay the cost of long-term waste disposal

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More from @shellenberger

Feb 22
For weeks, the media said that, by eliminating USAID, Trump had created a "constitutional crisis" and "abandoned" vulnerable people. It was all nonsense. A federal judge today ruled that the "risk posed to USAID employees... is far more minimal than it initially appeared. " Image
Media outlets uncritically embraced the notion that what Trump had done was unconstitutional. They uncritically accepted claims that USAID people would somehow be put in grave danger. It was all total nonsense, the evidence shows.Image
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The claims of "emotional harm" were too "'hypothetical' to "support a finding of irreparable harm."
"Upon scrutiny" the alleged injuries "are not irreparable."
USAID had not deprived anyone of necessary security.
And USAID had an orderly plan to return people home.Image
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Read 10 tweets
Feb 21
The UK seems like a free nation. It’s not. It is run by a tyrant, Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer . Shame on him for his totalitarian demand. And bravo to Apple CEO @tim_cook for defying the government. Please share this to warn the world that UK is no longer safe for free people! Image
“Apple previously called a bill from the UK Parliament that sought access to user data ‘unprecedented overreach by the government.’ At the time, the company said that ‘the UK could attempt to secretly veto new user protections globally preventing us from ever offering them to customers.’”
“Customers already using Advanced Data Protection, or ADP, will need to manually disable it during an unspecified grace period to keep their iCloud accounts.

“The company said it will issue additional guidance in the future to affected users and that it does not have the ability to automatically disable it on their behalf.

“The move to pull its encryption feature — rather than complying and building a backdoor — is a clear rebuke of the government’s order.”Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 20
For weeks the media have insisted that Trump and Elon were lying about rampant government fraud, waste, or abuse. Finally WSJ admits that “wasteful spending… isn’t hard to find.” Ya think? Image
Both of these examples of disinformation were published today Image
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Here’s the Times a week ago lying brazenly. Scroll down the thread and you can see they later alter the headline. They’re effectively saying that accusations of government waste, fraud and abuse are a conspiracy theory. Everything’s fine. Media gaslighting as usual.
Read 8 tweets
Feb 14
JD Vance is right: the greatest threat to free speech and democracy in the Western world comes from Europe. This week, I warned of the global axis of censorship, and why America must stand up for our founding values. It is inspiring to see the Trump admin. center free speech!
There are some amazing quotes in this speech:

— "If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg's scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk. But what German democracy, what no democracy, American, German, or European, will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered. Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters."
Read 11 tweets
Feb 12
The New York Times says “Musk Asserts Without Proof That Bureaucracy Is Rife With Fraud.” Seriously? The GAO — under Biden — estimated last year that we are losing $233-$521 billion *per year* to fraud. Guys, it’s right there. Why do you continue with this… fraud? SMH Image
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Seriously, why do you guys keep doing this? Everyone can see you’re lying. It’s pathological.
Look. At. The. First. Sentence.🙄

gao.gov/products/gao-2…Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 11
For decades, presidents said they told us everything they could about Covid, JFK, Epstein, UAPs and more. They lied. Trump promised real disclosure and now @realannapaulina says, “We’ve been treated like children for too long,” and will disclose! LFG! 🔥

.@realannapaulina is right: the only way to repair the trust lost between the American people and those we entrust with our security is for a historic process of disclosure of information that should no longer remain secret. Image
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Learn more about what the US government has been hiding for 60 years about the JFK assassination in my podcast with @jeffersonmorley below!

Read 4 tweets

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